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The Rural Voice, 2000-04, Page 41Check out our GREAT PRICES ON INJECTABLE IRON • Nipple Drinkers • Crates • Dry Sow Stalls • Plastic Sheets • Nursery Pens • Feed Carts • Hog Scales • Brooder Shields • Rotary, Corner & Feed Saver Feeders • Piggy Tubs Great prices on Crystal Spring feeders, 4' vapour proof fluorescent fixtures, stainless lag bolts, Philips heat bulbs & accessories, ventilation & associated equipment, PVC pipe & fittings, fans. 4— STEEL �t4?t\O '�� SAciP • Beams • Pipe • Angle Iron • Channel • Sheet • Flat • Tubing • TV Towers Owen Sound 1399 2nd Ave. East Phone (519) 371-8111 Fax(519) 371-6011 Barrie 771 Bayview Phone (705) 728-0660 Fax (705) 728-6562 1-800-567-7412 For a hog barn, Hilborn says. the obvious use would be for the continuous -flow exhaust fans from a manure pit. The main exhaust fans from the barn itself would produce too large a volume at too high a pressure to be practical, he feels. If a different filter material that can found that still absorbs odours while letting the air move more quickly through the filter it would be more effective for a hog barn, he says. Still the system may not be practical for hog barns at all, Hilborn says because it's just too expensive. There may be cheaper solutions including venting exhaust through a stack that would put the odorous air higher and disperse it more widely. creating an odour -free zone. Still. he says, the best solution today is still good setback distances. No matter what, he says, there still must be levels of tolerance, both ways, between farmers and their neighbours. The difficulty he says, is determining what's a reasonable level of tolerance. If some of the new technologies come into play, tolerance may be easier to build.0 can -con YMEm3 'THE COMPLETE HOG AND CATTLE CONFINEMENT AND FEEDING EQUIP. CENTRE' R.R. #1 NEWTON, ON (519) 595-8025 Evans Equipment 1 T 3 ph Carrier $385. + tax Custom sires available Get a blast from the past Large steam whistle works with compressed air S65. + taxes Springmount (RR 5 Owen Sound) 519-371-8514 WE ARI: A STh:h:i, SERVICE CENTRE Ontario Pork. From his understanding, he says, the net result of the composting operation is only about six inches more material than the two -foot depth that was put in the pit in the first place. Despite the fact manure spreading would be cheaper, the biggest detriment might be for farmers who already have liquid manure equipment in place and would have to purchase a new system, Dietrich says. Caldwell says OMAFRA is looking at the concept and Bradshaw says Ontario Pork's environmental committee is also interested. Don Hilborn, byproduct management specialist with OMAFRA's Woodstock office, hopes there will be a smaller - scale test of the technology in Ontario so more can be learned. Dietrich speculates there might be an added incentive if Ontario experience proves the barn as odour - free as he experienced it in Ohio. It might be possible to reduce the minimum distance setbacks for such barns, he says. "For me it's the only way to go," Dietrich says of the technology. Even if the new barns catch on, there will still be many years left in large livestock barns that already exist and if they cause odour complaints, what can be done? Hilborn has been exploring the area of biofilters to remove the odour from air exhausted from barns. The idea has already been proven to work with an Oxford deadstock company which installed a filter to deal with odour issues. Smell the unfiltered air and it's overpowering, Hilborn says, but stand on top of the filter and there's barely any smell at all. The filter bears a similarity to high-rise hog barn solution. Exhaust air is blown through pipes which are installed in the bottom of a concrete channel. The air comes out through tiny holes in the concrete floor and is filtered through a layer of peat or woodchips about 18 to 24 inches deep. As the air rises through the peat the particles that carry the odour attach themselves to the peat so that when the air arrives at the surface of the peat, the offensive odours have been scrubbed. APRIL 2000 37